What Melaleuca really said on June 5, 2005 about Peter Zuckerman in the Idaho Falls Post-Register:"Much has been said on a local radio station and throughout the community, speculating that the Boy Scout’s position of not letting gay men be Scout Leaders, and the LDS Church’s position that marriage should be between a man and a woman may have caused Zuckerman to attack the scouts and the LDS Church through his journalism. We think it would be very unfair for anyone to conclude that is what is behind Zuckerman’s motives. It would be wrong to do. The only known facts are, that for whatever reason, Zuckerman chose to weave a story that unfairly, and without merit, paints Scout leaders and church leaders to appear unscrupulous, and blame them for the molestation of little children. That too, is wrong, and the editors of the Post Register should not have allowed it."

In a letter sent September 28, 2007, Melaleuca refuted the allegation that Melaleuca “outed” Peter Zuckerman, based upon evidence including the following.

The idea that Melaleuca “outed” the reporter as a gay man is not only grossly untrue but impossible. Idaho Falls radio talk shows had been talking repeatedly about Zuckerman’s sexual orientation and its possible impact on his reporting for three months prior to Melaleuca’s article, which was published in June 2005.

The entire community learned of Zuckerman’s sexual orientation because of the Trish and Halli Show on KID 590 AM. One of the shows hostesses, Halli Stone wrote a statement saying she found out about Zuckerman’s orientation through a quick internet search which revealed an article that Zuckerman wrote in Poynteronline. She printed the article February 28, 2005 and began speaking about how his orientation could impact the scout story a few days later (by early March). The show discussed this topic all summer long, according to Halli Stone, where they devoted air time to it and responded to dozens of call-ins from the community.

In 2005, Zuckerman himself publicly acknowledged that it was the Trish and Halli Show that outed him, not
Melaleuca, in that the station devoted up to 12 hours to the fact that he was gay.

Melaleuca defended Peter Zuckerman and stated that the Trish and Halli Show's conclusions about his motives for attacking the boy scouts were unfair. For anyone to suggest that Melaleuca's defense of Peter Zuckerman's motives resulted in outting him, misconstrues the facts and has been refuted by Zuckerman's own statements.